Pay Rise For Public Sector Workers

That this House notes with concern that public sector employees, whose jobs are essential to the wellbeing of citizens and the economy of the UK and who are often on low wages, have had a real terms pay cut since 2010 and are now up to Â£3,000 per year worse off; further notes with concern the effect that this is having on the recruitment and retention of workers in essential sectors, along with the living standards of these workers; notes that this has also drained funds from circulation in the real economy; calls on the Government to urgently remove the one per cent cap from public sector pay and permit a pay rise which takes both inflation and the previous seven years of real-terms pay cuts into account; further calls on the Government to ensure that this pay rise is fully funded, rather than being expected to come out of already extremely tight departmental or local authority budgets; believes that the Government must listen to the voices of workers themselves and their union representatives when deciding on the rules within which pay review bodies must operate; calls on the Government to ensure that the hard work of public sector workers is recognised; and asks the Government to use the Autumn Statement 2017 to end the public sector pay cap.